Each year, the Viet Yen district Health Center uses nearly 30 blood units to serve emergency and treatment for patients. To ensure blood supply, the center regularly coordinates with the district Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation and the Bac Giang Agriculture and Forestry University to organize voluntary blood donation campaigns.

Nurse Le Thi Dung from the Department of Infection Control (the Viet Yen district Health Center) twice donated blood to save patients.

Dr. Bui Thanh Nghi, Director of the center said, it is difficult for emergency when patients are workers from other places and do not have accompanying relatives or blood supply is not suitable. 

Therefore, the center leaders launched a movement of voluntary blood donation at all times and everywhere among all officials and staff member. Many patients have overcome the critical situation thanks to the blood donated by medical staff.

For example, in mid-April, the Viet Yen district Medical Center received pregnant women Pham Thi Dung (27 years old) from Dien Bien province, who was hospitalized in an emergency situation and she had to undergo emergency surgery. In the process of surgery, the patient needed an urgent blood transfusion.

However, Dung had no accompanying relatives, while the amount of blood reserved at the center is not enough. Immediately, the on-duty doctors informed all staff members to mobilize the source of living blood. 

Of the nearly ten health workers who volunteered to donate blood, Ninh Thi Mien (from the General Planning Department) was qualified so she gave 250 ml of blood to the patient. Thanks to that, pregnant woman Pham Thi Dung overcame the critical situation.

Another example of the center is nurse Le Thi Dung from the Department of Infection Control. One time, while cleaning the operating room, seeing that the on-duty doctors were urgently mobilizing blood cells type B, she did not hesitate to donate blood to the patient. This was the second time Dung had donated blood for emergency.

In fact, the voluntary blood donation movement in the health sector takes place quite bustling. Hiep Hoa district’s Living Blood Bank Club was established in 2017 and now has 150 members, with doctors and nurses of the district Health Center as the core.

With the action motto of "being present anytime and anywhere", the club members have provided timely blood for and saved 30 patients in urgent need of blood. Many doctors and nurses who donated blood many times are Dao Minh Thanh, Duong Thi Loan and Nguyen Van Tung.

Or the Bac Giang Medical Intermediate School organizes two voluntary blood donation drives each year, adding nearly 200 units of blood to the blood bank.

Vu Thi Sau, Vice President of the Trade Union of the provincial health sector said: Every year, the health sector organizes voluntary blood donation festivals such as: "White Blouse – Red Heart" and "Young physicians follow Uncle Ho's words, volunteering for public health", thereby encouraging officials, doctors, employees, students in the sector to participate in voluntary blood donation. The whole sector’s blood donation mobilization has reached and surpassed the assigned target by 20-25 percent.

Statistics show that on average, each year, the province receives about 17,000 units of blood, exceeding the target set by the National Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation by 30 percent.

The proportion of the population engaging in voluntary blood donation in the province reached 1.16 percent, higher than the national average. Annual blood reserves basically meet the needs of emergency and treatment for patients in the province, so there is no scarcity or lack of blood.

To better the voluntary blood donation movement, the provincial Department of Health has regularly directed units to continue encouraging officials and civil servants to set an example in participating in the movement and disseminate information to raise public awareness of the benefits and significance of blood donation.

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Khoi Nguyen